Former CAO was in ‘dark period’

Phil Sheegl, the city’s former chief administrative officer, spiralled into a “dark period” of alcohol abuse and grief as he grappled with a terminally ill child and mounting allegations of misconduct in connection to the Winnipeg police headquarters project.

On Thursday, Sheegl testified for a third consecutive day at the public inquiry into the troubled project, which he said sullied his reputation and made him feel like “social enemy No. 1” in a city he loved.

“I’ve gone through a lot of emotional stages through this, from denial to acceptance and everything in between,” Sheegl said.

“It’s been really hard over the last 16 years to have a last name of Sheegl. I’m a big boy, I can take it and I can deal with it, but the repercussions and the ramifications and the feelings that this has put on my family is not deserved.”

Sheegl was the city’s top bureaucrat as it negotiated the construction contract for the police HQ at 245 Smith St. By the time the project was completed in 2016, it had been delayed numerous times and the cost had ballooned by nearly $80 million.

The fallout included two civil lawsuits, an RCMP investigation and an external audit that concluded the project had been severely mismanaged.

Sheegl was hired in the city’s property, planning and development department in 2008, and became the CAO in May 2011. He resigned in October 2013.

Sheegl said when he was CAO, he worked more than 12 hours per day, six days a week.

Under questioning from his lawyer, Richard Wolson, Sheegl revealed his drinking became problematic in 2018 and remained “out of control” until 2023.

At the time, Sheegl’s autistic son was dying of cancer, his elderly mother was ill and he was fighting a lawsuit in which he was accused of accepting a bribe from a key contractor involved in the headquarters project.

“During that time period, I had checked out. I was not interested in this ongoing case,” Sheegl said. “I was in a very dark period.”

“During that time period, I had checked out. I was not interested in this ongoing case.”

Sheegl said his son, who was 32 when he died in 2023, began to exhibit emotional and behavioural problems years before his death.

“Sean was non-verbal, he has never taken a painkiller or a Tylenol in his life and he couldn’t really communicate when he was in pain or he was suffering… Based on what the doctors told us, he was sick for three or four years before we knew,” Sheegl said.

“I had two choices. I could either quit drinking or I could go to rehab, and I didn’t have 90 days to go to rehab because my son was dying.”

Sheegl said he attended a clinic in Arizona to get help, and has not touched alcohol since then.

In 2022, Sheegl lost his legal battle and a Manitoba judge ruled he had accepted a $327,000 bribe from Armik Babakhanians of Caspian Construction.

Sheegl has repeatedly denied the money was a bribe, saying it was payment for a one-acre parcel of land he owned alongside former mayor Sam Katz, his friend, in Tartesso, Ariz.

While he wasn’t charged with a criminal offence after the lengthy RCMP investigation, he was ordered to pay the City of Winnipeg a $1.1-million settlement in the civil case.

The city later requested the Manitoba government call a public inquiry into the project. It began Feb. 10 and has already heard from some of the key players, including Katz, who appeared last week.

Katz has similarly been accused of misconduct in connection to the headquarters project, although he was not named as a defendant in the bribery lawsuit.

On Thursday, Sheegl defended Katz, who was mayor from 2004 to 2014. He said Katz doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his contributions to the city. He referenced several high-profile capital projects they had worked on, including the construction of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers football stadium, Chief Peguis Trail, and the Tuxedo mall development.

“I feel that the mayor was not treated fairly during his tenure,” Sheegl said. “At the end, that someone would have the — I will say disrespect, or audacity — to paint him with this picture is awful.”

“I thought that I had something to add, that I could help (Katz) in his goal to get things done for the city.”

Sheegl said he and Katz met when they were teenagers growing up in the North End and remained friends to varying degrees over the next several decades.

Sheegl is educated as a civil engineer, but made his career in real estate investments. He was 47 years old and in a state of semi-retirement before joining Katz at city hall.

“I had had my successes by that point,” Sheegl said. “I thought that I had something to add, that I could help (Katz) in his goal to get things done for the city.”

He said he has suffered nearly overwhelming levels of emotional and financial stress as a result of the publicity generated by the RCMP investigation and civil lawsuit.

Some of his investment partners have raised concerns, and a bank Sheegl did business with for more than two decades cut ties with him, he said.

“It’s caused me huge anguish in my business life,” Sheegl said. “I can’t tell you how disheartening, how deflating, how crushing it is to be accused of these acts.”

When told he was free to go after testifying for two-and-a-half days, Sheegl jokingly cheered “Yeah, baby!” and smiled, raising his hands up.

He shook hands with people involved in the inquiry before leaving the room.

— with files from Joyanne Pursaga

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

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